Need advice on sharpening tool

[smandal]

I'm planning to buy a sharpening tool to sharpen knives, chisels, hand plane blades etc.

I have looked at few models online:

http://www.tormek.com/en/machines/t7/index.php

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-708015-JSSG-10-Speed-Sharpener/drillpress/B000LE22EM

http://grizzly.com/products/10-Wet-Grinder-Kit/T10010

I want to buy a really good quality sharpening/grinding tool which will last me for many years to come.
The accuracy of bevel angle is important for me.
Please share your experiences that you may have with sharpening tools.

 

[froglips]

Oh boy, talk about a loaded question

I'm a waterstone guy, so I can't give you first hand info on the machine choices.

I have done a lot of research on those machines though. If you have a lot of money and big dreams, its still hard to beat the Foley-Belsaw. But, thats big bucks. Best I've seen on the used market is in the $450 range and thats just a base kit.

Without a doubt, the Tormek has the most loyal, satisfied users I found. I think its a safe bet that its worth the high cost.

Some have said the Jet knock off is not as good. Hard to say, I sure don't plan to buy both and find out

Before someone beats me to it, there are a lot of Worksharp users on the site. Sure, I'm not one of them, but rest assured they are typing replys as you read this http://www.worksharptools.com

Hope that helps.

Jim

 

[CarvedTones]

I am glad I clicked on Jim's link. The biggest complaint I have about my WS 2000 has been addressed:
https://www.worksharptools.com/product.asp?specific=154
There is a knife sharpening attachment now!

Most folks prefer the WS 3000 but the 2000 fit my limited budget and workspace better. The 3000 does more angles accurately out of the box (jigs are not difiicult to make for the 2000) but I have found the fixed angle of the 2000 is fine for most of my blades. If you have gouges, you need one of these:
https://www.worksharptools.com/product.asp?specific=146
You mark the bevel with a sharpie and it's relatively easy to get the angle right by looking through the spinning disc.

 

[garymuto]

I have the Jet Slow speed wet sharpener. I bought it at Rockler where they sell the tormek and the Jet side by side. The "expert" opinion I got (from the sharpening guru in the store) was to save money and buy the Jet and spend money on the Tormek attachments. I have both brand attachments and they all work for me. I haven't used the Tormek myself so all of this is heresay. I would recommend the Jet over the Tormek T3 since I think the smaller wheel diameter would weaken your cutting edges.

 

[Travis Porter]

I have the Tormek. It is a quality set up, but it is EXPENSIVE! Very expensive, and it works very very well once you learn how to use it and acquire all the jigs and set ups. It does a good job, but it has it's faults too.
The water trough isn't wide enough and can have leakage. Leakage, reminds me of diapers..... Too many jigs..... I have almost all of them, and it takes awhile to figure them out. Manuals are excellent, just a lot of learning.

The worksharp looks like a nice unit for plane blades, chisels, etc. If I had it to do over again, I would probably start out with a worksharp. Unfortunately, it came out 6 months after I bought the Tormek.

 

[Ken Massingale]

Worksharp....
3000 for me but if the 2000 fits your needs that's all that matters.

 

[Phil S]

It sure seems that I like to buy tools that sharpen other tools - I have most of them. For sharpening turning tools and getting the nicks out of bench chisels and plane blades I use a slow speed 8" grinder with a wolverine gig and a veritas gig. Both gigs work fast and produce a edge that is good enough for lathe turning or lawn mower blades, but you will need another tool to bring the edge to real sharp. Once the tool is ground, I use a Woodtek wet horizontal grinder, or a Jet wet grinder or manual sharpening stones and strops to get that real sharp edge.
The Woodtek has a 1000 grit wheel with water drip on it from above. It is easy to use and produces a flat bevel and an extremely sharp edge but it is very slow.
The Jet sharpener, a Tormak look-a-like, will produce an reasonably sharp edge but the setup time is a little slow and it is a little difficult to keep from grinding the bench chisel into a skew chisel.

If I do not want to hassle with filling the water troughs up in both Woodtek or the Jet and setting up the right gig on the Jet nor having to clean up the spilled water when I am done, then I just grab my manual stones. I have India stones, Japanese water stones, diamond plates, and a translucent Arkansas stone. The India stone are fairly coarse and I do not use often. The Japanese water stones work fairly fast but having to soak them in water is kind of a PITA. The diamond plate I have is from DMT and has both a fine and very fine grit surface. It cuts extremely fast and is very easy to use. To bring the edge to real sharp I use the Arkansas stone with oil. I like using oil as the last lub because I like to keep a very thin coat of oil on the tools.
The bottom line is if I just want to put a very sharp edge on one or two tools I will always use the diamond plate and a fine oil stone and I will be done in a matter of minutes.

You are welcome to come over and try any of the above. Just PM or email me. Phil

 

[Bas]

I started out using a cheap oil stone. It didn't work too well. I then tried Scary Sharp, basically sandpaper glued to a flat surface (I used a granite cutout), and a jig from Lee Valley to put the tool at the right angle. It worked great, chisels, plane irons etc. were extremely sharp.

It just took forever.

I then bought a WorkSharp 3000, and it's pretty much idiot-proof. You can do a set of 6 chisels in under 20 minutes. It's reasonably affordable, although you probably want to buy a few extra glass plates. For straight stuff, it can't be beat. The WS3000 can also do turning tools, but I don't have any experience with that. I still do wide plane blades by hand (sandpaper), there is an accessory for the WS3000 to handle wide blades but I wouldn't use it often enough to justify the expense.

If you want to economize, some people have had good results with the Tormek clone from Harbor Freight. The accessories are compatible, so you can build a pretty good system without going broke.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Make the WS 2.25 inches!!!!

I have been eying the worksharp for two years. I can sharpen my turning tools quickly on a grinder, but my planes are a different story. Avoided the Tormek due to expense, used the Jet at a workshop and liked it, but the Worksharp seems like just the ticket. The Grizzly looked inviting as well.

The problem is that the worksharp sharpens blades up to 2" and the blades on my Veritas and Lei Neilsen planes are 2 1/4". When the worksharp comes out with a machine that can sharpen these blades I will buy one. Shouldn't need an accessory for an obvious feature that should be part of the machine. Maybe it is my age, but I am disliking tools that I need accessories for. I like just going up to a tool and what I need done happening. I don't like having to attach some additional feature that I may remember where it is and how it attaches. The less set up time, the better. Until then, I am using old fashioned simple wet stones. I would like to see Worksharp come out with a machine that I step right up to and can reliably sharpen the wider blades, and the only thing I gotta do is turn it on and slide the blade up the ramp.

Hope that helps some of your thoughts. Guess you need to decide what you are sharpening to decide on which machine might be best for you.

 

[merrill77]

Re: Make the WS 2.25 inches!!!!

There is a wide-blade attachment for the WS3000 that will allow you to sharpen very wide plane blades.

 

[merrill77]

Mark my vote for the Worksharp. I held off for a long time buying a machine - I did water stones and scary sharp for a while. I even tried a Woodcraft horizontal-spin sharpener (which I returned...it was junk). The WS3000 was the first machine with a good quality and a reasonable price. I love mine - wish I'd had one 10 years ago! Bevel angle accuracy is pretty much idiot proof. Fit and finish is excellent. The wide-blade attachment gives you a nice platform for building jigs...I've got a very rough jig that I used for sharpening my 15" planer knives on the worksharp.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

Check out all of the reviews on the Worksharp

Yes, there is a Worksharp 3000 attachment for wide blades. Could the ramp be redesigned to accept larger blades? Probably.

The WS3000 wide blade attachment may not be ideal. Also the grits may not be the best for agressive grinding. See one set of reviews at this address: http://www.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-30...ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1247623060&sr=8-5

Workshop 3000 with attachment at Amazon = $299.85
Jet with rest & truing tools at Amazon = $415.45
Tormek at Amazon = 589.00 plus whatever additional attachments are needed
Grizzly plus the Tormek square edge jig at Amazon = 159.95 + $50.95, plus whatever other attachments are needed

All seem a sizable investment. One that I would like to ensure I don't regret at a later date. The Tormek and Jet just seem to pricey to me, especially after getting the additional jigs and attachments. It would be nice to get an unbiased comparison of all the sharpeners available. The last review I saw left out some of the choices, which seems to skew the results. I would like to hear if anyone has some experience with the Grizzly T10010.

 

[merrill77]

Re: Check out all of the reviews on the Worksharp

The WS3000 wide blade attachment may not be ideal. Also the grits may not be the best for agressive grinding.

I would agree that they are not ideal. I went to Home Depot and picked up a pack of 60 grit PA discs for regrinding the bevel angle on a block plane blade (they weren't a perfect fit, but it only took a minute to cut them to size. With that grit, regrinding the bevel took less than a minute. I spent a few more minutes progressing through the grits and now have perfection.

 

[CarvedTones]

Re: Check out all of the reviews on the Worksharp

Down at the lower end, just for apples to apples pricing, my WS2000 with the edge vision accessory and extra discs in various grits was under $150. It was on sale, but not an amazing discount. Once all my commonly used tools were in good shape, I almost always have the slotted wheel on with a med/fine grit underneath and a very fine honing grit up top. That encourages me to keep the tools in great shape because it is so simple to flip the switch and hone and/or touch up the bevel.

 

[fergy]

I'm confusedon one part here..with the Worksharp, chances are you're still going to need a grinder of some sort if you need to redo the hollow grind on any of your tool edges, correct? It's mainly for dressing the cutting edges.

With the Tormek- or Jet-style of wet grinders, you can do both tasks, though you may be better off with a stone and jig for the final edge finish.

Or am I missing something here?

 

[merrill77]

I have no other grinder - I don't have (or see a need for) a hollow grind on anything I use (note that I don't do the spinny stuff).

 

[timf67]

I too have been holding off on buying a powered sharpening tool. I do have a slow speed grinder from grizzly and a wolverine jig for turning tools, but for my "flat wood" tools I just have ceramic stones and a granite plate with sticky sandpaper. Note, I tried waterstones for a little while but as one person already said the soaking thing is a PITA. The cermaic stones work great and don't need to be soaked. I just splash a few drops of water on them and go.

 

[fergy]

planes and chisels both need to be hollow ground as I understand it. The final edge is flat ground.

When you initialy get these tools, they're ground that way. Over time, you eat that up with resharpening via flat sharpening, and eventually you'll need to regrind the hollow.

Or am I again totally misunderstanding something here?

 

[CarvedTones]

I'm confusedon one part here..with the Worksharp, chances are you're still going to need a grinder of some sort if you need to redo the hollow grind on any of your tool edges, correct? It's mainly for dressing the cutting edges.

With the Tormek- or Jet-style of wet grinders, you can do both tasks, though you may be better off with a stone and jig for the final edge finish.

Or am I missing something here?

This explains it to some degree:

http://www.fine-tools.com/scharf.htm

Opinions differ as to whether it is better to grind the bevel on a blade hollow, as happens on a grinding wheel, or flat, as happens in manual sharpening with a grindstone. Hollow grinding makes the subsequent finishing easier but the more acute angle which it causes will make the cutting edge weaker and more liable to break. This effect is particularly noticeable and disadvantageous with the very hard, laminated Japanese plane blades and chisels. It is unthinkable to grind the bevel of an iron hollow in Japan. The German manufacturer E.C.E gives a clear warning against hollow grinding. So if you decide on a flat bevel for your plane iron, you are in the best of company.

Some advocates of either flat grinding or hollow grinding are pretty adamant about their opinions. I flat grind because that is what my equipment does and I am pleased with the results.

 

[smandal]

I have the Jet Slow speed wet sharpener. I bought it at Rockler where they sell the tormek and the Jet side by side. The "expert" opinion I got (from the sharpening guru in the store) was to save money and buy the Jet and spend money on the Tormek attachments. I have both brand attachments and they all work for me. I haven't used the Tormek myself so all of this is heresay. I would recommend the Jet over the Tormek T3 since I think the smaller wheel diameter would weaken your cutting edges.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. I see a lot of support for WorkSharp

I like garymuto's idea too. I came across a similar idea by Daniel Heine @ sawmillcreek.org.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=96321 sounds like Tormek's jigs are 100% compatible with Grizzly

I also came across Makita 9820-2 during my ongoing research
http://www.amazon.com/Makita-9820-2-Horizontal-Wheel-Sharpener/drillpress/B0000223JC